Below is an imagined sketch of John William Carter (1810 – 1850), my 5x great-grandfather whom I descend from through my Plaskett family history.

John William Carter was a Thames Lightermen or Waterman, he worked the river Thames from a very early age and he’s the only ancestor (that I know off) born in the last 500 years who married aged just 12. Although his first child was born when he was aged 15 and his wife Jane Ward (1807 – ) was a few years older.

John sadly died aged 40 as a result of water born virus’s carried in the River Thames at the time, he died from Delirium and Tremors, Typhoid on the 13th May 1850.

Through John William Carter I descend from Mary Warner and through the Warner family I relate to actress/singer Cher.